I thank Brother Gerard for this marvellous Letter to the Order and the invitation to add a word.
The letter begins with the transformation of the timid disciples into brave preachers. St Thomas says that courage is necessary for all the virtues. To preach to our frightened world, we need courageous friars, who are unafraid to take risks.
I loved the interplay of two images of our mission, fishing and shepherding. For each I would add a complementary word.
When we fish for human beings profound questions are juicy bait. The first conversation between God and humanity opens with a question to Adam: ‘Where are you?’ (Gen. 3.9). God does not need information. The Bible is filled with questions which invite people to come newly alive with God’s grace. ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’, the angel asks the women at the tomb (Luke 24,5), ‘Do you love me more than these others?’ (John 21.15) Jesus asks Simon Peter.
When I was in Ukraine recently, the brethren encouraged me to bring to the surface difficult questions, such as how one might even begin to forgive their unjust aggressors. How could I both pray for Ukraine to have a military victory and also believe that the ultimate victor is the nonviolent Jesus? We shall fish deeply if we dare to raise the questions that trouble the people of our time. We shall fish well if we are not seen to be people with easy answers, but are beggars for the truth, eager to receive it from anyone who is wise.
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). This mutual knowledge is ‘gratuitously received in silence.’ (para 4) In the digital culture of constant distraction, our words need to spring from a deep inner silence in which we attend to the Lord and to each other. The busier we are, the more we need to be centred in silence. Toby Lees OP wrote: ‘Countless messages purporting to be personal will have been competing for your attention because in a world of abundant products and near-infinite information, the true scarcity is attention… Our phones exist like Gollum’s ring in our pockets; entertainment or distraction is there all the time..’ The secret of Pope Leo is his deep inner tranquillity. We need to drink from the springs of silence every day if we are to see people’s faces, hear their voices and receive from the Lord what is to said and done.
Finally, in almost every continent, studies have shown a crisis in the relationship of young men and women. It was a profound preoccupation of the recent Synod. The lives of the first Dominicans were marked by friendship between brothers and sisters: Dominic and the nuns; Jordan and Diane, Catherine and Raymond of Capua and so on. This is a precious inheritance for our contemporary world in young women and men so often fear each other.
— Brother Timothy Radcliffe, OP
